Sagentia helps reduce cost of pharmaceutical production in UK

15 December 2009

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Sagentia, part of a consortium led by GlaxoSmithKline, is
delivering a step change improvement in advanced secondary
pharmaceutical manufacturing in the UK.

The aim of the project is to substantially improve manufacturing
efficiency within the UK pharmaceutical industry for the production of
the largest proportion of dosage forms — tablets. The consortium will
work to prove a new way of making tablets, which instead of using a
batch-based process will use continuous processing.

This approach aims to dramatically reduce the cost of pharmaceutical
manufacture, thereby enabling UK companies to compete more effectively
with lower cost economies. The efficiency gains are targeted at
improving manufacturing precision, productivity and mass yield, and will
be deliverable at approximately 70% of the capital cost of conventional
technology.

The consortium is made up of partners from industry and academia and
includes GlaxoSmithKline, GEA Pharma Systems Ltd., Siemens Industrial
Automation and Drives Technology, University of Warwick, Newcastle
University and Sagentia.

The Technology Strategy Board, the government funded body that
supports technological innovation in the UK, is funding the project as
part of a £24 million investment in high-value manufacturing projects.
This fund was launched in January 2009 by the Technology Strategy Board.
Businesses from a broad range of industries were invited to form
consortia to compete for funding.

The funding was awarded to 33 projects, which include important
research and development into the effectiveness of processes used in
drugs manufacture and research which could help in the search for a cure
for cancer. Only 50% of the projects that met the assessment criteria
were successful in gaining funding.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said:
"This investment is intended to maintain and develop the international
competitiveness of UK manufacturing companies against a backdrop where
manufacturing often gravitates to countries with lower overall costs.
It's also important to ensure that companies continue to innovate during
the downturn to ensure a successful recovery for the UK economy. This is
part of a concerted drive to help to unlock competitive potential in
high value manufacturing."

Adrian Howson, Head of Pharmaceutical Process at Sagentia, comments:
"We are delighted to be involved in this project. Traditional tablet
manufacturing process has evolved into one that is easy to regulate but
very manual and therefore expensive to operate in western economies. As
a result, manufacturing capacity is being exported to Asia Pacific where
labour costs are lower and UK manufacturing plants are already starting
to close. This is an important opportunity for the UK pharmaceutical
industry to maintain worldwide competitiveness in pharmaceutical
manufacture."